Mačkovci

"In a quiet valley lies a little village, sleeping peacefully in the evening twilight. Only one window is still open. At the window leans a sorrowful girl…" So went the song by Lojze Slak, more than 30 years ago. In those days the valley really was quiet. Mačkovci appeared as a settlement somewhere towards the end of the 15th century as Mackovcz. Later the Hungarians renamed it Matyasdom, before it finally became known by its present name. The settlement has 234 inhabitants in 78 households. It consists of five hamlets. Migration to the town has abated but not stopped. In the past, in the days when the train still ran through here, Mačkovci was an important local centre. There was an agricultural cooperative here, an estate, a sawmill and a complete primary school. But the passing of time has changed all that. The agricultural cooperative moved to Puconci, where however it soon collapsed. In 1982 the pupils from the upper classes of the primary school were transferred to the central school in Puconci. Over 40 years ago the local people built a large cooperative centre with their own hands, but this was soon appropriated by the Panonka cooperative. When this went bust, the villagers lost this too. There are quite a number of young people in Mačkovci, many of them keen on sport. Unfortunately the railway has divided the village in half, leaving them temporarily without a sports field – the only facility that brought old and young together. The "iron road" will, however, probably bring some positive changes: a well-tended environment, a sports park, pavements, etc. Today the train connecting Murska Sobota to Hungary once again runs through Mačkovci. There are currently almost no clubs or societies in Mačkovci except a five-a-side football club and a volunteer fire brigade.